Another Blooming Roots Finish - Poinsettia Place

 I finally finished “Poinsettia Place,” the December stitch for the monthly Blooming Roots series by Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives. I love how it turned out, but boy, it took a long time to stitch. I had stitched on it steadily since November. Though I have received the January chart and floss, I have decided to wait to stitch that one; I’ll just enjoy this one for another month. 

Meanwhile I have been stitching some Christmas pieces and may continue to do so well into January. :-)

While writing this post, I had one eye on The Kennedy Centers Honors on CBS, and I thought that I would mention that you can watch all the previous Kennedy Center Honors shows on Youtube. 

This may be my last post before Christmas so may I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! 

Christmas Lights, a Lovely Evening, and Excessive Packing Material

 Wednesday was a remarkably warm day for these parts, and I took the opportunity to drive around at dusk checking out the lights. This was the scene at the Cohasset Common. When it eventually turns colder, this small pond will be filled with skaters.

I drove to a few of my favorite spots, but alas, there wasn’t much to photograph. 

Last night my quilting buddies and I went out for a holiday dinner. We were trying to remember just how long we have been friends. We all originally went weekly to the Quilters Compass quilt shop in Quincy. Sadly, the quilt store eventually closed, but we didn’t see any reason to stop meeting. We take turns hosting. In the beginning, we met weekly, but now it is usually every two to three weeks depending on our schedules. So how long has this been going on? I knew I had joined the weekly gathering at the store after making my first quilt. When I returned home last night, I checked the quilt’s label, and it was 2004!!! 

Excessive Packing Material . . . get a look at this large box stuffed with paper and yards and yards of bubble wrap. What pray tell was inside? Well, Joann’s had recently had an online sale, and inside the box were three Christmas mugs and one gingerbread themed nutcracker. I swear; each mug was individually wrapped in at least two yards of bubble wrap. There was no danger of any breakage of items in this box.  In case you are curious, here is the nutcracker along with one of the mugs. 

Enjoy the season . . . no stress allowed. 🧑🏻‍🎄

Countdown to Christmas - December 18th

Hi Everyone! It has been awhile since my last post.  Time seems to be rushing by.  I have been busy stitching and celebrating. Last week I attended a holiday luncheon at my friend Kathy’s home along with a dozen friends.  Her home was beautifully decorated. She has a stunning, large artificial tree filled with ornaments that was gorgeous. 

“Jesus Is the Reason” above is a chart from Teresa Kogut as is the Santa below it. I love them both, but these star shape ornaments were a bear to finish. You place wrong sides together and then machine stitch an outline around the design before attempting to turn it right sides out. I think it would be easier if the pieces had been stitched on linen, but I stitch on Aida which can be stiffer. Because of that, it is difficult to get the points fully pushed out. I have a star shaped patriotic piece to stitch also by Teresa Kogut, and I will be sure to use a softer piece of fabric to stitch that piece. Though it was time consuming and ‘fiddly’ to finish, I think the result was worth it.

“The Magic of Winter” was a kit from Cardinal Hill Stitchers. The kit came with the pattern, fabric, floss, trim, and sled which had to be painted. I substituted DMC etoile floss for stitching the ornaments and in person it adds a bit of sparkle to the tree. For me, this was not a quick stitch, but it sure is cute! 

While in my boot, I didn’t expect to have many decorations up as lugging boxes up from the cellar would not have been smart, but then my godchild Kristin came for a visit the Monday after Thanksgiving. She had the day off from work and came to see what I would like to have done. She brought up this small tree which I placed on the porch and upon which I hung a few of my favorite ornaments. 

She also brought up my nativity set. It had belonged to my aunts, and it is older than I am. As a child, I would help my aunts decorate for Christmas, and I was allowed to arrange all of the figures. My favorite piece was the camel. :-) They displayed the set on top of their TV. In those days, TVs were housed in large wooden cabinets. This year I gathered my paints and very fine point brushes and touched up all the worn spots. 

Thanks to Kristin, my White House ornaments also made it out of the cellar.

It’s not quite the over the top decorating that I usually do, but the place looks quite festive. 🧑🏻‍🎄

Here’s the best news: after four and a half months, I am out of the my boot and I am back driving!!! Yeah!!! Not being able to drive was the hardest part of my torn Achilles tendon experience. Fortunately, I am blessed to have wonderful neighbors and friends who helped out.

That’s all for today. I have more to show, so I promise it won’t be long to my next post.

Enjoy the season, relax, and try not to stress about getting everything done. 🧑🏻‍🎄

December 1 - Christmas Countdown

It’s hard to believe that it is now December. If you are in the United States, I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving Day. 

I purchased this 7.5 foot pencil tree on sale from Michael’s online as I wasn’t sure that I would be able to bring up my Christmas tree from the cellar. This tree arrived on my doorstep earlier this week, and it was simple to bring in and set up. Yes, I’ll miss hauling up all of my favorite ornaments and other decorations, but this year I will display only my cross stitched ornaments on this narrow tree. 

Last January, I decided to stitch one Christmas ornament each month as many cross stitchers do. It was a swell idea and I was gung ho, but my enthusiasm waned by April. Also, note to self: if by chance I do stitch one Christmas piece each month in 2025, I absolutely have to fully finish the piece and not let them pile up. (In cross stitch terms, we finish stitching a piece, but then we ‘fully finish’ the piece by then making it into an ornament or other type of presentation. Yesterday I spent three hours and only ‘fully finished’ these two ornaments while three others are nearly done.

My favorite this year is “Tall Treat” by the The Blue Flower; it makes me smile.

 

Here’s “Santa’s Pals” from stitching with the Housewives on Etsy.

Have a lovely, creative, no stress week. :-)

Elephants on Parade

 Here’s a quick post to show you my latest finish. The little girl who grew up next door recently had her first baby. This elephant pattern had been a block of the month at a recent guild meeting, and I thought a herds of these colorful pachyderms would be a fun subject for a quilt. :-)

That’s all for today, short and sweet. 

An Autumn Wool Applique Finish

 This nine inch wool applique mat is “White Pumpkin Scalloped Mat” from Buttermilk Basin. I believe I had bought this pattern and one for a larger project sometime last year along with some lovely, luscious, autumnal colors of wool at The Quilted Crow Quilt Shop in Bolton, MA. Well, nothing got done last year, but this year, I wanted to at least stitch this smaller piece. I also prepped the larger piece, and I fully intended to put it away to take with me on a future quilt retreat. Then . . . gosh darn it, it looked so pretty that I decided I had to start it as well. :-)

 I also have a Christmas wool applique pattern that I would like to get stitched. Yes, I bought another pattern, but I am using wool and perle cotton from my stash.

Is that all I am working on? Heck, no! You will be seeing a number of different finishes in the next few posts. In fact, I saw this yesterday on Facebook, and it validates my tendency to bounce between projects. 

So, what are you presently working on???

Bittersweet Boulevard

 This morning I finished fully finishing November’s “Bittersweet Boulevard” by designer Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives on Etsy. While I really do enjoy stitching this series, it takes me a long time to stitch the two parts. I had started stitching it in the middle of October, and it took me probably three weeks to stitch!!! As soon as I received the December chart, I began stitching it, and at least I have the street sign section stitched. The house and sign for December are done in shades of pink, and it will be very pretty once it is done. I’m also trying to get a few Christmas cross stitch ornaments done as well.

At yesterday’s Crosstown Quilters Guild meeting, I turned in four Christmas stockings. Guild members make stockings which are donated to DCF (Department of Children and Families.) Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of them. I also finished the top of a quilt from designer Ricky Tims. The pattern is “Gaelic Blessings” a double Irish chain with variations with a Celtic cross in the center. [Update: I put “Gaelic Blessing” into the ‘Search This Blog’ feature, and it showed that in a March 4, 2017 post I showed a photo of all the fabric all cut and carefully labeled to work on at a guild retreat. Seven years . . . that’s not too bad. ;-) ].

I have been on a kick to complete projects. Imagine my surprise to find all the completed blocks just waiting patiently in its project box. The pattern was from 2016, and I believe I started it as soon as it came out. I remember having been super excited to start it, but somewhere along the line I drifted away from working on it. I am happy to say that the top is now done, and I have an idea which I think will be pretty cool for the back. I just need to spend some quality time at my sewing machine working on that. :-)

At yesterday’s meeting, I picked up a baby quilt from one of our members, Maureen Anderson, who longarmed it for me. I love how it turned out, and I will post a photo as soon as I have finished the binding.

As you can see, I have been trying to stay very busy since last week’s election. It’s been difficult to even fake a positive outlook. For my sanity, I have stopped watching news programs on CNN & MSNBC which I had previously watched far too much. I thought I might continue watching “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell, but last night I decided to give that up as well.  I will continue to read Heather Cox Richardson’s , “Letters from an American” each day. There is a link to her column under “Blogs That I Enjoy” in the column on the right side of my blog. (Note: If you get an email notification when I write a new post, you are probably not seeing my whole page. Click on my blog title, and that will take you to my full page.)

I will not comment on the election; we have all seen and read enough about that from both sides, but I will say to those who reelected our forty-fifth President . . . Be careful what you wished for . . .